"Ruthless Prioritization" at Computers in Libraries #CILDC

Ruthless Prioritization (Track D, Management Tips and Practices)
Rebecca Jones

 Whats's in it for them (WIIFT)? WIIFM (What's in it for me)? See Manifesto of Ruthless Prioritization

 Manifesto of Ruthless Prioritization: Prioritization "means falling in love with the organization's mission" and "Ruthless prioritization means having the discipline to solve the big, really hard problem rather than being seduced by all the small, easier problems."

 Mission: Libraries were created to help people to solve a problem, make a decision, or learn something new.

 Leaders are not supposed to encourage people. They are supposed to build encouraging environments for their people to work in. (paraphrase of Rebecca Jones)

Return on investment: what value for customers i being created? How much time will this take? Estimate a return on investment in terms of your missions for each project.

Constraints and dependencies. Whats needs to happen first to allow project to progress? What's going to hinder the schedule? What competencies and capacity do we have and do we have them? Apply 3 constraints: dependencies, timeline, and team composition

Put puzzle together: sequence projects based on ROI & Constraints

How many priorities can you have at once? Can remember 3, realistically 5 so involve others.

Things you must do - important to do for value of organization, value for customer and stakeholder


Dont prioritize what's on your schedule but schedule your priorities. (Covey) Schedule "biobreak" to stop and think about your priorities to make sure they're reflected in your timecards/schedule of people youre involved with.

Whats's in it for them (WIIFT)? WIIFM (What's in it for me)?

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